intermittent thoughts on my life and work as the chess coach at IS 318, a public middle school in Brooklyn

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

I lose horribly and have already checked out of my room

"Sunday morning, praise the dawningIt's just a restless feeling by my sideEarly dawning, sunday morningIt's just the wasted years so close behind"Amateur Team East, Sunday morning, 9 am, round five, Philip Shin, a 1700 kid, a ruy lopez, the worral attack (5. Qe2). He played something like a marshall, and I took the pawn when I wasn't supposed to. Already it's annoying:

You played an insipid line as white, got less than nothing from the opening, and lost quickly. Nothing unusual.

The important lesson you should take from this is to play main lines and know them so you can punish your opponent's deviancy! The main line closed Ruy Lopez is the only way for white to get anything whatsoever but you inflict oceans of suffering upon black if you go right down the main lines. Of course against the Marshall, play anti-Marshall or take it and go into the pawn up ending in the d3 and qd3 where black has to play accurately to draw.

I hate the last day of that tournament, mostly because I don't want it to end :(

The worse problem is no nap between rounds. We solved that by getting a giant margarita at the mexican restaurant down the street for lunch. Of course, my final round, post-tequila, game is the one Jim West posts on his blog :)

Since I started thinking of chess tournaments as vacation instead of as serious chess, I solved all these last-round room issues: I just pay for an extra night at the hotel. Sometimes I even sleep over, traveling the next day and taking a personal day at work.

Having a nice experience is more important than money. Within reason, of course.